A Rare Lacquer-Gilt Bronze Amithaba Buddha Liao Dynasty

seated in dhyanasana on a lotus base, his left hand in dhyana mudra and his right in abhaya mudra, dressed in long flowing robes draping over his shoulders and falling in undulous folds over his arms and knees leaving the torso bare, his face with gentle features set in a benevolent expression, framed by pendulous ears and tightly curled hair surmounted by the usnisha, the bronze richly patinated to a warm chocolate-brown colour with traces of gilding remaining, the base unsealed

The lower section of the base, probably of pedestal form, is broken and missing. The surface is worn, in commensuration with age, and the very fugitive gilding only partly preserved.
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This figure of Amitabha is a very rare example of a very small group of elite bronzes cast under the patronage of the Khitan Liao; all of which bear a very confident sculptural understanding of the human figure, eloquent vocabulary of drapery and distinctive elaborate lotus thrones. Compare a similar gilt-bronze buddha of the Liao Dynasty, the hands set in a different mudra, sold in our New-York rooms, 21st September 2006, lot 122, from the collection of Muneichi Nitta, Japan, no.C.5-11. Another Amitabha figure of similar size to the present example is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, exhibited The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, Taipei, 1987, pl.94, also originally from the famous Nitta Group collection. Compare also the limited and equally rare group of bodhisattva figures produced in the same Khitan Liao workshop, illustrated in Saburo Matsubara, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture, Tokyo, 1966, pl.302(d), and a Maitreya in the British Museum, illustrated in Zwalf, Buddhism: Art and Faith, New York, 1985, no.294, in which he affirms that the stylistic prototype (on a more massive scale) of this group is to be found within the Lower Huayan Temple, Datong, Shanxi province, dedicated in 1038 in what was the western capital of the Khitan Liao empire.